Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said Tuesday that Canada would “join the international community” in recognizing the sovereign independence of the Balkan republic, citing Canada’s commitment under NATO and the UN to protect Kosovo.

“It’s why today, in this context, that Canada acknowledges the new international reality and will recognize Kosovo as an independent state,” he said.

In response, the Serbian ambassador in Ottawa, Dusan Batakovic, has been temporarily recalled to Belgrade.

According to Mr. Bernier, Canada wanted to ensure it fully understood the situation before making any announcement about the status of Kosovo.

“It was important for us, in the beginning, to assess the situation on the ground,” he said. “It’s an important decision for a country, when you have to recognize another country. We took our time and now we’re ready to do it.”

As for the withdrawal of the Serbian ambassador, Mr. Bernier said the move was not unexpected.

“We’re not surprised about that. It’s their [Serbia’s] decision.” he said.

The foreign affairs minister referred to Kosovo as a unique case, because of the past conflict with its neighbours. He denied it had any similarity to a claim for Quebec sovereignty.

"It's a unique case and as a declaration issued by Kosovo's parliament also makes clear, and this is what's important for us, the unique circumstances which have led to Kosovo's independence mean it does not constitute any kind of precedent," he said.

Canada had previously remained on the fence over the issue, mainly due to sensitivity over the historical standoff with Quebec separatists and a rising concern in Ottawa that a declaration had provoked the beginnings of a major East-West split.

The Parti Quebecois seized on the federal government’s decision, seeing a parallel with its own goal of making Quebec a country independent of Canada.

“We are happy because in recognizing the political independence of Kosovo, Canada is recognizing the entry, legally and democratically, of this new independent state into the international community,” Daniel Turp, the party’s international relations critic, said in a statement.

PQ leader Pauline Marois was not available to reporters, but Francois Gendron, the party’s house leader in the National Assembly, said Kosovo could be an example for Quebec.

Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence is an illustration of “the liberty of people to assume what I want for Quebec,” he added.

Nations have an “innate, fundamental” right to self-determination Mr. Gendron added, and Canada has recognized Quebec as a nation but “without meaning anything.”

The Serbian ambassador expressed his disappointment with the Canadian decision Tuesday.

“This is a precedent set in a very dangerous way. We are very unhappy because we consider Canada a friendly country, with 200,000 Serb-Canadians living here and giving a great contribution to our bilateral relations,” said Mr. Batakovic.

Mr. Batakovic disagreed with Mr. Bernier on the similarities between Kosovo and Quebec, however. The ambassador pointed to the Clarity Act and the defined conditions under which a province could secede from Canada.

“The Canadian Clarity Act, which defines how Quebec can become independent, has its counterpart documents in both Serbian and international law,” Mr. Batakovic said.

“The clarity act for Kosovo is the Serbian constitution and UN Security Council Resolution 1244 which defines Kosovo solely as an integral part of Serbia with the right to enhanced autonomy and nothing more.”

The ambassador said Canada would regret its decision. He denied Serbia would retaliate diplomatically, but acknowledged that a significant breakdown relations would likely occur.

“We are a democratic country and we will not use retaliation,” Mr. Batakovic said. “It is sad that the growing economic exchange between Canada and Serbia might slow down and that many very useful bilateral initiatives will suffer.”

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev told a radio station, however, that "Bulgaria will certainly not recognize Kosovo on Wednesday," as the next government meeting is not until Thursday.

Istvan Pasztor, president of the main Hungarian association in Vojvodina, an autonomous Serbian province neighbouring Hungary, warned that recognizing Kosovo could endanger Vojvodina’s ethnic Hungarian minority of some 350,000 people.

When events first began to unfold in Kosovo, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department issued a statement saying it was “assessing the situation” while, at the United Nations, Canada monitored a crisis meeting of the Security Council on the subject.

The UN has run Kosovo since a NATO bombing campaign -- in which Canada participated -- forced Serbia to withdraw its forces from the region almost a decade ago. NATO acted to end a brutal crackdown ordered by then-Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic on the ethnic-Albanian majority in Kosovo.

Serbs consider Kosovo an important part of their cultural and religious heritage, but the ethnic-Albanian community rebuffed UN efforts to broker a deal whereby the Serb province would have been granted “supervised” independence.